Tragedy has a way of bringing together unlikely groups. So too can a well stocked bar. Together, they make for a packed house. This was the case at the fundraiser held at Doc’s Clock on Saturday for the 67 people displaced by last week’s four-alarm fire.
Bridge and tunnel pub crawlers mingled with longtime Mission residents. Drinking nearby community activists like Erick Arguello, of Calle 24 merchants group, were Google employees. The tech giant announced last week that it would match all the funds raised at Doc’s. With a big glass jar on the bar fill of 20 and 50 dollar bills, those funds grew quickly throughout the night.
Throughout the night, the narrow neighborhood bar was packed. Under the shuffle board table, tucked beside the pinball machine, bags upon bags of clothing donations piled up from the past few days’ worth of donations the bar has been collecting.
We got word from Doc’s bar manager that a Saturday’s night worth of drinking raised $8,000. Meghan Casserly, a corporate communications manager at Google who helped coordinate the company’s fundraising, informed us that Google changed its mind and decided to double the Doc’s Clock’s fundraisi≠ng effort, to contribute a total of $16,000. Together, that’s $24,000 raised in one night at the bar. With this additional boost, the GoFundMe campaign set up by neighbor Zachary Crockett has raised over $98,000.
If you missed the evening, you can donate to funds for those displaced by the fire here. Mission Local was on scene for our video series Mission Eyes to ask what brought folks to Doc’s that night, talk to bar-goers about the community’s response post fire, and, of course, slug a beer or two. See video below.
Mission Eyes from Mission Local on Vimeo.
Correction, an original version of this post overstated the amount raised in Saturday’s fundraiser. It was a basic math error 8 + 16 ≠ 32. We’re all a little sleep deprived here at ML HQ, please forgive the error..